The Plan

so being the guy that need structure (flexible structure but structure just the same) I decided last night to sit with the catalog and and really organize myself. placing my focus on the US issued American Flags I started a spreadsheet, each listing will have the Scott #, the date of issue (or date range if that was all they had listed), and the face value. I also included a space to indicate if I have the stamp or not. this task has taught me a remarkable amount about stamps!! the small variations and how they will impact the over all collection is nothing short of amazing!... the list is not complete as of yet but my hope is that I will have a great deal more done tonight.
a few things of note here
the catalog only lists the flags in the look up if the flag is the main feature.
there are many between those listings that have a very nice flag and as such I have added them to my particular list.
one issue I may run into in the future is that the book I am using runs to 2001 (this is a lot as it is) once I complete this list I may wich to get the numbers for stamps with flags from 01 to date ... solution is to ask about them - persistent issue is those that fall between the listed flags that I may wish to include and cannot with out viewing them first hand....hmmm a lot of work to do (and collecting) long before this is an issue just wanted to mark the thought while I had it.

note: found a few new resources this week and they seem to be interested in seeing my stock grow. though honestly I am not sure why LOL but who am I to complain?

got my first ebay order in and wow wonderful 200+ off paper and many I was looking for!! this is a great batch .. just need more time to go through and see what all is there.......

Hey BearWithFish I maybe have a few flags that you may need. Are you talking about the Scott# 1633-1682 or just the American flag stamp issues in general? [eg. Scott# 1094,1132,1249,1320,1338,1345-1354,1447,1597,1622,1623a,1633-1667,1890,1891,1892,1893a,1894,1952,2103,2114,2115b,2116,2276,2278,2280,2419,2431a,2475,2522,2523,2513a,2528,2531] or [your statue of liberty #1035,1041, 1042, 1044a...etc you get the idea...lol
Let me know if I can help fill in any gaps OK?

Sorry as I got carried away there....

LOL you are great and yes I mean all US issues with Flags on them either as the focus or just part of the design (same for Liberty) LOL...... as for what I have and dont have I need to get in all the shipments this week (5 more coming LOL) and sort and go through carefully and finish the list to check off what I have vs need and then I will post holes and edit as they get filled LOL thank you so very much this will be a great help...

more came in!! my little 25 stamp set and I love what I fond in there (more details tomorrow) and my first STOCK BOOK!! I so happy!! I love this thing I been sorting into it all evening LOL I will take some pix with the phone and post them in the morning...... man I really really love the way I just keep learning new things!! for example just the smallest detail changes everything you thought you knew LOL... this is great!!

Hi bearwithfish (what a visual name! I can just see the big bear with a salmon in his paw)I am really enjoying your posts. One of the reasons is that we are so diametrically opposed: where you plan; I rush in!

In my first week into this hobby (only 10 months ago) I had many ebay orders flooding in (all very cheap, I am not rich) and I had stamps everywhere and nowhere to put them. In addition I had an old garbage bag full of stamps that my mom had saved for years. It was chaos!

I made all the mistakes that wiser people seem to avoid, but I enjoyed it all the same and I am still deriving a great deal of pleasure out of this hobby that seems to be like an abyss to explore.

One of my favourite things has been to design my own albums ( I have designed and scrapped over 6 complete albums for my Australian collection before I even had a working printer!)

I have found that one thing that is especially helpful is to have a mentor to help you along. Although I am new to this particular forum I can see that it's full of very knowledgeable people, I advise you to never stop asking questions.

All the best with your new hobby and I'll keep reading as you progress, and I will no doubt learn from it a great deal.

cheers

alex

thank you Perf14 ! the entire purpose of this thread is to share my journey and hopefully make mistakes that others can learn from and if not have others learn that it can be done with minimal success...

as for being rich ..LOL.... I am not by any means rich ... which is why I buy bulk and CHEAP!! lol.....

as for the albums I have a few I found on line I like for the Lincoln set and the Women on us stamps (women and the first 50 woman) I now have the stock book to organize my Flags and once I find the lay out I like I will transfer them to their own book. I can not find the right set up for them an I attempted to use an on line do it your self and well not very good results.. I am good with words and people not HTML no matter how slow I go LOL.... I wonder Perf what did you use to design your book?

i thought I would add this to the thought train today LOL..
as I was sorting my newest additions and selecting not only ones that fit my albums in progress I noted a number of others that I liked and thought why not save those also as I am not sure what the future holds and there is no point passing up what I have on hand that can be related to a number of topical ideas later or for the over all album I intend to work on in the future. but an interesting thing occurred as I was selecting them all the ones I picked while along certain themes certainly had a particular style to them as well. engraved typically and had a very old fashioned style and look to them. and as I found more and more of these I found my self decidedly disliking some of the more modern "cartoon" or "photo" quality stamps...
i may be young in terms of life span but I am a bit old fashioned and these appeal to me a great deal..... the issue I suppose will be when I decide to start the over all US book or my life book (1975 - current) as I may simply not like the looks of the newer stamps.. hmmmm decisions decisions.....

Welcome to the great big wonderful question of What To Collect!

LOL .. I feel like a kid with ADHD in an arcade Lol

I use MS Publisher as it is an extremely versatile program, with a number of features that I have not found elsewhere. I am not one for the standard white page filled with black boxes type album as I like some colour in my pages and I like to relate the stamps on that page to a topic in the muted background, I guess a picture will describe better what I mean:

[url=http://www.thegomc.com/PicHosting/share-5F2F_4D66BFA3.html"][/url]


I agree with you regarding the types of stamps that are most attractive. I find the engraved stamps of the early 20th century are the ones I like best, modern digitally constructed images for the most part leave me cold, with very few exceptions.

cheers

alex

that is a great page!! I will look around for that one and see if I can get something as nice for my final actual album.... thank you so much perf...

I agree with bearwithfish, very nice page.

Is the muted background a Blamire Young watercolor? If not, I've missed the relationship to the stamps.

Perf14, I am impressed with the layout and content of the album page. Congratulations on a job well done.